Al Gore's Political Past

"All Gore does not care about the environment" wrote one of Metro's columnists today. I figured that the column looked promosing and gave it a go.

How do you cover up something? Well, the easiest way is to get a blanket and flick it over the thing you want to cover up. A more complicated immaterial object or notion such as "pride", "political persona" or perhaps something that might be called 'truth', would require a more fancy cover up than your ordinary blanket.

Let us presume for a moment that the overall truth of this column, it’s historicity, is somewhat accurate or in some way meaningful. Let us conduct a little thought experiment, just for kicks, drop your guard for a minute and receive some written environmental punches from Gore’s political past. Under Gl Aore’s vice presidency his responsibility for environmental issues led to:

* The bald people who own the companies that chop up forests in the U.S. were allowed to cut down the oldest trees in forests, once protected by law and then sold the lumber below the market price probably to, let me take a wild guess, rich companies that produce fancy furniture.

* The people who breed cattle got their pasture expenses lowered. Making it easier to breed, slaughter, and send the stuff to starving fat people all over the U.S… let us try and make CO2 levels drop again, why don’t we produce more meat, more meat! Build meat castles from the damn cows, move the castles to the Hamptons and order some decent American rich folk move in. The deal comes with your customized private moat.

* The government - you know the official name for that place with the old men who run political tings – made it easier for the sugar industry in Florida by giving them more money. A lucrative synthetic business that live on making consumers addicted… They obviously need more money!

* The sugar industry is ruining the everglades, but hey, it’s just a big swamp with dangerous gators, very very dangerous, and they smell too. The hell with it. It does not have anything to do with the environment!

* The national parks where animals and plants once could be animals and plants and just do plant business or whatnot, those parks were opened up for legal hunting and fishing. Well, those pink salmons are in the way so they had to make it legal so more people would go there and litter and consume! The bears were doing a poor job. They are just incompetent and lay around all winter doing nothing.

* When researchers asked for money to do research on solar energy, their funds were decreased. The sun will never die! someone said. It's an absolute truth, handed down by the almighty Bob, the bloke from the other research department, the one with the fancy logo, which would get the deal and do me a movie about the environment and bet on the CO2 thing, all just to cover up me ever writing this article.

Now for you who have seen the film, the one where Gore talks about a decent goal, a thoughtful arrow indicator on where we are heading and how we are polluting the world – his political background completely shatters any impact or credibility it could have produced (atleast for someone). It becomes Gore’s protective shield against what people can accuse him of, it is his get out of jail free card, since environmental politics in the U.S. still is controversial and could hardly be mentioned in a room with hardcore industrial guns. The film can be seen as a cover up, it definitely gets a new expanded meaning with the background of his.

How much does your past affect what you strive for or believe in now? A big deal I reckon, especially if one’s past gets covered up or lost in the very political speech of the present stance.The cheap shots and lame attempts of irony in this article will not cover up the focus of this article – but nevertheless… What is there left, when one now speak truths and uphold other truths but in the past have caused other truths that are in direct conflict with the very truths you tell, which also effect the fuelling of our doom?

I end this article by borrowing a catchy phrase from Henry Rollins... Dear Al Gore, You put the Mental in EnvironMental.